Digital media devices include many different types of audio and visual devices that can access and ‘play’ digital media. Digital audio players, such as those using MP3 (Motion Picture Experts Group, Audio Layer 3) or Windows Media Audio.™., formats access digital content and produce sound. Portable digital video disc (DVD) players access audio and video data from a DVD or a stored file and produce video with sound. Generally, these devices have internal storage in which the content is stored, removable media such as discs, or a mixture of both.
These devices have large quantities of storage, even in the portable configurations. They allow a user to have access to many difference types of content. For example, a digital music player may have hundreds of different tracks, covering different types of music, from opera to pop. Similarly, there may be several different artists, albums, labels, or other categories of music.
For the user, accessing a particular piece of information has largely been a labor-intensive operation with minimal assistance. Typical existing solutions cause the user to single-step through tracks or possibly pick from a list. Even in PC-based applications that let users pre-select music to be loaded on the device the selection process can be time consuming. An ‘advanced’ solution might allow looking at a list based on a category.
The end result is that the user spends far more time interfacing with the player than is desired. The idea of these types of devices, especially the portable devices, is for the user to enjoy the content, not spend time selecting it. The primary purpose of the device is to play music to the user. When confronted with a significant amount of content to choose from, the user often simply wants to hear music, not fumble about trying to pick and choose what to hear.
The continued popularity of radio and the tendency for people with hundreds of CD's to only listen to what is in a 5-disk changer are good examples of where convenience wins over variety. Therefore, a more programmatic solution to managing digital content for users would be useful.